A new case has been registered on the charge of allegedly misappropriating ₹73.13 lakh from the Chief Minister’s Distress Relief Fund (CMDRF) meant for the 2018 flood-relief activities in Ernakulam district and investigation is under way, the State government has submitted before the Kerala High Court.
The submission was made by Amjad Ali, Government Prosecutor, when the bail petition filed by Nithin N.N. of Kakkanad, the sixth accused in an earlier case registered in connection with the misappropriation of the CMDRF funds, came up for hearing.
The new case was registered on the basis of a complaint by the Additional District Magistrate on May 23.
The court dismissed the bail petition after finding force in the arguments of the prosecutor that if the accused was granted bail, there was every chance of him influencing the witnesses and tampering with the evidence.
Detailed probe needed
Opposing the bail plea, the prosecutor submitted that the misappropriation was done by manipulating the beneficiary list provided by NIC Rebuild Ernakulam as well as manipulating the BIMS data of failed transactions which was pooled in the treasury account. A detailed investigation was on by scrutinising the master data, BIMS data and treasury payment data. The extent of the offence could be ascertained only after completing the scrutiny. However, the investigation conducted so far has revealed a total misappropriation of ₹27,73,500.
Digital evidence
The prosecutor further submitted that the evidence, being mainly digital, had to be collected from the computer system at the collectorate and treasury. As voluminous digital and hard copy documents needed to be analysed and several persons had to be questioned, it would take several days to unearth the entire conspiracy behind the misappropriation of the fund, he submitted.
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